Wow! My wife and I headed out on a much anticipated trip down to fish Merwin and Yale reservoirs, and we were not disappointed.

We got up at 3am Sunday and arrived, boat in the water and lines down at 7:15am. Conditions were overcast and misty, small chop on the water, 60s. It was just another July summer day in Washington. Having no idea where to start on Merwin, the hotspots that other members had posted were invaluable. I had loaded them into my GPS, and also printed out the map that Lou S had created for WL.com. Our first stop was about ¼ down lake on the far side from the launch. We were running four poles and I staggered them at 55, 45, 35, 25. I pretty much went with either a home made wedding ring or hoochie-type rig, and for the most part found silver dodgers to be money this trip. Anyway, within minutes we had our first ever Merwin kokanee, and very nice 14” silver bullet. I was pumped to say the least! We continued to fish this area for about two hours and marked lots of fish, but also started catching pike minnows so decided to move.

I decided to check out the far end of the lake, at the dam, figuring if it was good at Riffe by the dam maybe Merwin would be the same. We ran down lake and when we arrived there were 7-8 other boats working the area,, so obviously this was “the spot”. Within minutes of dropping our gear down we enjoyed two of the best hours of kokanee fishing JoAnn and I have ever experienced. By noon it was limits in the boat. We caught eight fish in the 13-14” class, and two around 12” for the day. Amazing! But the best part, we had time to run over to Yale and check it out. Yale has a 16 fish limit, so it is legal to catch 5 at Merwin and then 11 at Yale. With visions of a 32 fish day in our heads, we drive the quick 10 miles and dropped our boat in at Yale.

The sun was starting to peak out and clouds were almost clearing to give a view of Mt St Helens, but not quite. This time I ran us straight down to the dam and lines went over. We immediately started catching fish. Sad to say, we could find nothing bigger than 6-8”. Deciding that it would be nice to settle in and relax for the evening, we called it a day and left Yale to those that want the trouble of cleaning 8” fish.

Day two we again journeyed to Merwin, confident that there were bigger, bright fish to be had. At 6am I ran us straight to the dam. Conditions were more summer like, sunny, light breeze, warming. In short, it was a perfect day to be on the water.

Once again our lines went down, and once again the hits started coming. Only today, for whatever reason, we were catching 10-11” fish. Now, that’s OK, I guess, but not when you are expecting 13-14” fish. So after catching 4 fish in this class and wondering what happened to the big guys, I suggested to JoAnn we move in search of better quality fish. She agreed, and we journeyed down to another set of hotspots loaded into our GPS.

Hotspots paid off again! Bamm, within a few minutes we had fish number 5 in the boat, a much better 13 ½ inch fish. We worked our way down lake toward the launch, jumping from hotspot to hotspot, picking up quality fish at each stop. By noon once again we had limited the boat, today with 6 quality fish and the four smaller guys. I found it very interesting that the big fish had seemingly moved off the dam area, or had stopped biting. But that was OK, because I now feel very confident that the next time we come back I’ll know some prime areas to hit.

Details and Specifics: my bubblegum hoochie rig was the clear leader behind a silver hoochie, and 35 ft was money. But we also caught a good number of fish at 25 and 40-45 ft. The deep rod, 55-65, was pretty quiet both days. I think maybe 1-2 fish tops. Runner up were any of my wedding rings. I tied these up using glass beads and silver plated blades, with a soft glow bead between the hooks. I have to say, they looked killer in the water, much more shiny than a store brand wedding ring. I feel pretty confident in these wedding rings and they accounted for some NICE kokanee!
Anyway, long report for a great two days. We shot video so I’ll start working on it soon. My wife does not like being in photos or video, so you’ll have to deal with my mug shots.

5 stars for both days!

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